Honda China is imploding; bets on new EV brand Honda Ye to revive sales

At the Guangzhou Auto Show, joint-venture GAC Honda unveiled the Honda Ye P7, in hope to be its lifeline facing against the stiff domestic competition as it falls behind the transition to new energy vehicles.

The P7 would be Honda’s second model under the Honda Ye brand, following the S7, to be produced by Dongfeng Honda.

The Ye brand in China is Honda’s third sub-brand in the market, following e:N and Lingxi.

Honda plans to launch six models under the Ye brand by 2027 and aims to reach full electrification transition in China by 2035.

In fact, GAC Honda retail sales for the month of October 2024 fell by 38.8% year-on-year from 65.1K to 39.9K units.

Even worse, Honda’s second JV with Dongfeng experienced an even more steep drop of 45.7% year-on-year, from 65.1K to 35.4K units.

GAC Honda and Dongfeng Honda on a group basis experienced a 38% YoY drop in sales, from 122K to 75.6K units.

On a cumulative basis, Honda China sales fell by 29.2% as of October 2024 YTD, from 952.3K to 674K units.

Honda China sales have fell every year since 2020, when it used to sell over 1.6 million units. That figure dropped to 1.55M in 2021, 1.36M in 2022, 1.22M in 2023, and in all likelihood, below the 1 million level in 2024.

Honda is still heavily reliant on its internal combustion engine vehicles, with the Honda CR-V selling 18,499 units in October 2024 alone, and 143,092 units year-to-date.

It’s best selling new energy vehicle is the Honda Accord e:PHEV, selling a pedestrian figure of 6,065 units as of October 2024 YTD, followed by 4,301 Honda CR-V e:PHEV.